


Playing Hooky

by epersonae



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Getting Back Together, I don't even ship this but here we are, Kissing, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-16
Updated: 2018-08-16
Packaged: 2019-06-28 02:06:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15697938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/epersonae/pseuds/epersonae
Summary: He hasn’t seen Avi since... Well, he saw Avi the day they fought off the end of the world, but they just kinda awkwardly stared at each other across the grassy lawns of the Bureau HQ. The last time they talked, well, that was-- he takes a deep breath-- sometime before Candlenights before last.





	Playing Hooky

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hops](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hops/gifts).



> I'm lowkey mad at the whole gang for this one. Thanks for the tumblr prompt, @hops, I GUESS. Posting basically unedited because I'm annoyed at the world and myself. But what the hell. Enjoy?!

He likes to come up to the roof of the building to think. It’s his school so really he could hide out anywhere, theoretically. Practically, if he’s anywhere where there’s other people, someone will find him and make him do actual work. Which, today: fuck that.

He’d thought having a school would be fun and easy and he’d get lots of kids who were like he was, only he forgot that he was a little pain in the ass. A mouthy know-it-all show off. And he has to make sure that all the experiments are safe and the kids don’t blow themselves up, and you know, it’s a lot of work.

Which is why he’s sitting on the roof looking out over the city, pointedly avoiding all of that work. In the distance, he hears a small  _ boom _ and hopes it’s not one of his students. Then behind him, he hears the door creak open. Dammit, he’s been found out. He stands and spins around, ready to defend his absence from his office.

“Oh. You.”

“Hey.”

He hasn’t seen Avi since... Well, he  _ saw  _ Avi the day they fought off the end of the world, but they just kinda awkwardly stared at each other across the grassy lawns of the Bureau HQ. The last time they  _ talked _ , well, that was-- he takes a deep breath-- sometime before Candlenights before last.

“Uh, I’m sorry about....” Lucas trails off, not even entirely sure where to begin. Avi just shrugs, good-naturedly as always, like it’s no big thing. He missed that, the utter nonchalance, that and the way his long bangs fall out of his ponytail over his eyes.

“Yeah, I get that,” Avi says. “If you wanna talk I’m cool, if not....” He holds out the familiar flask. “We could just hang.”

Lucas lets out a long sigh and feels his shoulders sag with relief. Avi crosses the rooftop and throws an arm around his shoulders.

“So you’re alive. That’s cool.”

Lucas can’t help but laugh. He puts an arm around Avi. It’s good, familiar; he should’ve looked up Avi ages ago, but he figured...the Bureau. He tries to stay away from the Bureau even after everything. Especially after everything? He’s a little lost in his own head when Avi hands him the flask.

“Yeah, uh, those guys, uh….” He takes a drink. Same stuff, still good, still ridiculously strong. Goes down way too easy. He lets out a little breath.

“Still a lightweight?” Avi says, bumping his hip against Lucas’s. He’s so close, and warm, and it’s familiar, and he didn’t realize he’d missed Avi so much. Lucas takes another swig. “Slow down, buddy, don’t want to have to carry you off the roof.”

Lucas laughs again uneasily. He wants to sit again but doesn't quite know how to lead. 

“This is a good spot,” and just like that Avi lets go of his shoulder, sits right there. Lucas follows, leaving a little gap between them. It's been too long to be sure; most of the time he feels like he's gotten past all the shit that went wrong, but being around Avi brings it all back. 

“How'd you—”  _ How'd you find me,  _ he wants to ask, not just on the roof but in general, but it's not like Avi wouldn't know about the school. 

“They said you were in your office, but obviously you weren't, so I went looking for weird hatches in maintenance closets. And….” He waves a hand, then takes back the flask. Not too complicated.”

For a while they just watch the city below in silence, passing the flask back and forth without a word. Then he actually catches Avi looking at him, and it's too much of a surprise. 

“I missed you,” he says. “You know, when I was….”  _ Supposed to have been dead. _

“Yeah?” He watches Avi blink, slowly. His eyes are a little red-rimmed, and it's not the drinking. 

“Yeah. You know, I had to, uh, I mean…” He still sees himself being shaken like a doll by Magnus, as if from a distance. “I got a chance to get my head right.”

“‘M glad, this is pretty sweet,” Avi replies, waving the flask. 

“I know, right?” And because he can't fucking help himself, he starts gushing about the good parts of the school, about getting to actually share his work again, the whole shebang. Until he realizes he's been babbling, a little bit drunkenly, and then he stops abruptly. 

Avi puts a hand on his knee. He startles. “Missed you too, you nervous weirdo.” Lucas sniffs, rubs his face. “I like the beard. Looks….” Avi looks away, blushing. “Looks cute.”

“At first, it was just easier? And then I thought distinguished? I was hoping for distinguished.”

Avi’s blush deepens, spreads up to his ears. “No, yeah, distinguished, totally.”

Lucas means to chuckle, but it comes out somewhere between a snort and a giggle. 

“You don' think 'm distinguished at all, do you?”

And he realizes he's still making Avi blush, and Avi’s hand is still on his knee, and it doesn't matter if he's distinguished. (Or that he's supposed to be running a school right now, not drinking on the roof like an unruly student.) Avi laughs, and it's that low soft confident laugh. The one that makes his heart stutter in his chest. That makes his blood feel slow but also somehow on fire. 

Now their knees are touching, he hasn't touched  _ anybody  _ since…. Since before anybody, since the last time he touched  _ Avi.  _ He looks from Avi’s hand to his face. 

Avi puts the flask in his jacket pocket. It's a deliberate gesture. He licks his lips, brushes his hair out of his eyes. All these little familiar things. 

“Kiss me?” Lucas says, and he just hopes it doesn't sound as needy as it feels. But the next thing he feels is Avi’s smile against his mouth, languorous and slow, and that’s what’s been missing in his life, that’s the last puzzle piece to put into place. He reaches up and pulls loose Avi’s ponytail, feeling that sleek hair sliding in his fingers again. He’s gasping for air when they stop kissing; he didn’t really mean to stop but he needed to breathe, maybe.

“You wanna play hooky from school?” Avi’s laughing a little bit, which an age ago— or an hour ago— would have sent him into a nervous fit. Now he just laughs along, even if it’s a little too loud or awkward, maybe that’s okay. Then he kisses Avi again.


End file.
